Joseph-Antoine le Fèbvre, sieur de La Barre (or Antoine Lefebvre, Antoine Lefèvre; 1622–1688) was a French lawyer and administrator best known for his disastrous three years as governor of the colony of New France (Quebec).
As a young man he served in the administration in France. He then became governor of Cayenne in French Guiana in 1664 after it was recovered from the Dutch. After handing Cayenne over to his brother, he served briefly as lieutenant-general of the French West Indies colonies, then for many years was a naval captain. In two engagements he was accused of cowardice, but in others he served with distinction. At the age of 60 he was appointed Governor of New France, holding office from 1682 to 1685. He spent much of his energy in trading ventures, using his position as governor to attack his great rival René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle. He began a war with the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), the main power in the region, and led a poorly equipped expedition against them that ran into difficulty. He was forced to agree to a disadvantageous peace treaty that was condemned by France's Indian allies, the colonists, and the French court. He was recalled as a result and spent his last few years as a wealthy man in Paris.
Life Early years (1622–64)
Antoine Lefebvre, Sieur de la Barre, was born in Paris in 1622. His parents were Antoine Le Febvre de La Barre and Madeleine Belin. His father was a counsellor in the Parlement (court of appeal) of Paris and the prévôt des marchands(fr). Around 1643 La Barre married Marie Gascon. They had one daughter, Marie (). On 10 September 1645 La Barre married Marie Mandat. Their children included Robert (born ), François Antoine, Seigneur de La Barre (1650–1727), Marguerite (1651–1725) and Jeanne Françoise (1654–1735).
In 1646 La Barre was made a counsellor of the Parlement. He was appointed a maître des requêtes (master of requests) in 1653. He was intendant in Paris during the Fronde civil war. He was then in turn intendant of Grenoble (Dauphiné), Moulins (Bourbonnais) and Auvergne. In 1659 Jean-Baptiste Colbert complained to Cardinal Mazarin that the people of Dauphiné hated La Barre. Mazarin replied that he should be allowed to resign. He was appointed intendant of Bourbonnais in 1663.
Cayenne (French Guiana) (1664–65)
In 1663 the French decided to regain control of their former colony of Cayenne (French Guiana) from the Dutch, despite being at peace with the Netherlands at the time. Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy was appointed Lieutenant Général of the Americas and was tasked with this mission. La Barre formed the Compagnie de la France équinoxiale in the Bourbonnais to colonize what is now French Guiana. On 26 February 1664 Tracy sailed from La Rochelle, France, with seven ships and 1,200 picked men of the Compagnie de la France équinoxiale led by La Barre. His first stop was in Cayenne, which the Dutch commander Guerin Spranger surrendered without opposition on 15 May 1664. Tracy disembarked La Barre and his garrison, and left for Martinique. Germán Arciniegas relates,
An agreement between Spranger, de Tracy and de la Barre dated 15 March 1664 set out the terms of surrender. It recognized the Dutch rights to lands in the island, and to their guns, ammunition, merchandise, provisions and appurtenances. The French would let the Dutch military march out, drums beating, and would give them and all other inhabitants transport with their goods and slaves to their destination island or country, providing food and drink on the voyage. The inhabitants who remained, including the Jews, would have freedom of religion and full possession of their goods, lands and slaves. If they chose to leave they could sell their land and take their goods and slaves with them.
La Barre established a garrison at Fort Cépérou, Cayenne, and started construction of a settlement of 200 huts. Back in France, on 11 July 1664 Jean-Baptiste Colbert, with the king's agreement, founded the Royal West Indies Company (Compagnie Royale des Indes Occidentales). La Barre was appointed Lieutenant General of the Company and Governor of Cayenne. In February 1665 the ship La Suzanne arrived in Cayenne with 180 men. La Barre learned from the ship of the new West India company, and set off for France. There he published an account of his mission and thoughts on the future of the colony as La Description de la France équinoxiale. He obtained the appointment of his younger brother Cyprien Lefebvre de Lézy as governor of Cayenne from the West Indies Company. Cyprien Lefebvre replaced the acting governor, Antoine de Noël de la Trompe d'Or, who left office on 8 September 1655.
Lieutenant general of the Antilles (1665–68)
During the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–67) La Barre was appointed lieutenant general and sent to the West Indies in 1666 to defend them against the English. The intendant at Rochefort, ), told the minister that La Barre was a poor choice as leader of this expedition since he had no stomach for war. On 7 October 1666 La Barre presented himself to the council on Martinique and registered his commission, dated 26 February 1666, to command the vessels and maritime forces of the islands. Soon after he called an assembly of the senior officers and leading inhabitants of the island to hear their complaints concerning commerce and to respond on behalf of the company. La Barre rightly thought that Nevis was the most important English base in the Leeward Islands. In November 1666 the war council turned down his proposal to attack and capture Nevis.
A letter patent from the king date 1 February 1667 confirmed La Barre as lieutenant-general of the French armies, islands and mainland of America. On 4 February 1667 a fleet under La Barre arrived at Montserrat. La Barre learned that the garrison of the English Governor Roger Osborne included many Irish Catholics of dubious loyalty, and decided to land a few days later. His land force included 500 militiamen from Saint Christophe under governor Claude de Roux de Saint-Laurent and 500 regular troops of the Navarre and Normandie regiments led by Marshall Saint Léon. The force advanced inland in search of the English force, which they could not find, but they did capture Osborne's wife and other civilians, forcing the governor to sue for peace. The French took large quantities of armaments, slaves, horses and cattle. 2,000 Irish residents of Montserrat agreed to become subjects of France under the Sieur de Praille as interim governor.
In April 1667 La Barre's ship Armes d’Angleterre engaged in a desperate battle with the English ship Colchester. The Armes d'Angleterre with 24 guns and a crew of 110 defeated the larger Colchester with 44 guns and 300 men in an engagement off the point of Nevis. La Barre was wounded and returned to Martinique. The Dutch commander Abraham Crijnssen heard that an English squadron commanded by Sir John Berry had entered the Caribbean, and sailed to Martinique to discuss plans with the French. La Barre proposed joint action against the English, which became more urgent when word arrived that Saint Christopher Island was being blockaded by Berry. La Barre and the governor of Martinique, Robert de Clodoré combined their forces with Crijnssen. The Franco-Dutch fleet sailed for Nevis, and engaged the English in the Battle of Nevis (20 May 1667). La Barre caused a retreat through his incompetence, and Crijnssen left for Virginia in disgust.
After returning to Martinique La Barre and Clodoré were arguing when a British fleet under Admiral John Harman arrived and in the Battle of Martinique bombarded the French ships off Saint-Pierre. La Barre appears to have panicked and ordered his ships to be scuttled. On 31 July 1667 the Treaty of Breda restored peace and ordered return of colonies captured by either side. A letter from the king dated 15 September 1668 named Jean-Charles de Baas governor and lieutenant general of the Antilles. Another letter dated 19 September 1668 ordered La Barre to return to France to report on the state of the islands.
Naval officer (1668–82)
Cayenne was sacked by English forces under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir John Harman in August 1667. Harman's forces destroyed Fort Cépérou and the town of Cayenne. Cyprien Lefebvre left on 23 September 1667. From December 1667 the Jesuit father Jean Morellet was the de facto governor. After peace was restored in 1668 de La Barre returned, and held office until 1670. Cyprien Lefebvre again took charge of Cayenne in 1670, and held office until March 1679.
The 1670 Treaty of Dover united England and France against Holland. La Barre was made captain of a man-of-war in 1671. That year he published Journal du voyage du sieur de la Barre en la terre ferme et ile de Cayenne. It appeared as part of the Relation de ce qui s’est passé dans les îles de l’Amérique en 1666–1667 (Paris, 1671). Jean-Baptiste Labat said this was "rather a Factum against M. de Closdoré, the governor of Martinique, than an exact and sincere account of what occurred there." In 1673 La Barre was in command of a ship in the squadron of Admiral Jean II d'Estrées and was distinguished in action. La Barre commanded the Sage in the Battle of Schooneveld on 7 June 1673, in which the Dutch were defeated. He was in command of the Maure in 1674 in the Mediterranean fleet of Jean-Baptiste de Valbelle.
New France (1682–85)
Governor King Louis XIV appointed the 60 year old La Barre governor general of New France (Canada) on 1 May 1682. La Barre was to replace Louis de Buade de Frontenac. At this time the Haudenosaunee were powerful and had defeated the other tribes in the region and were threatening the French. The English were active in Hudson Bay to the north and in New York to the south. La Barre reached Quebec City at the end of September 1682, a month after half the town had been burned down. He was accompanied by his wife Marie, his daughter Anne-Marie, his son-in-law Rémy Guillouet d'Orvilliers, captain of the guards, and the intendant Jacques de Meulles. Jacques de Meulles was related to the minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert by marriage.
La Barre was personally instructed by Louis XIV that he must focus on restoring order and good government and must do everything to avoid internal disputes between the colonists, which had done great damage under Frontenac. He was told that he should allow no more expeditions against the Sioux and the Mississippi, since the king thought his subjects would be better employed in cultivating the land. La Salle, however, could continue his explorations if they seemed useful. De Meules was given the same instructions by the Minister of the Marine.
La Barre wrote letters to the king and the Navy minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Seignelay in which he said that unlike his predecessors he did not intend to engage in trade for his personal benefit. He was sure he could overcome the Haudenosaunee, who would have heard of his victories in the West Indies. La Barre thought the Haudenosaunee wanted to destroy New France so they could control the fur trade, perhaps more a reflection of his own outlook than that of the Haudenosaunee.
On 10 October 1682 La Barre met with the military and religious leaders of New France to discuss the general situations and the threat from the Haudenosaunee Confederation, particularly the Tsonnontouans (Senecas) . La Barre and de Meulles managed to persuade the king to send money and 200 soldiers the next year. The king instructed La Barre to try for a diplomatic settlement with the Haudenosaunee, and only to attack if he was sure of a rapid victory. La Barre had a list of land grants drawn up in 1682. He supported the independence of the clergy from the civil administration, and in 1684 increased the parish priests' pay.